NC NAACP and Republican Mayor of Belhaven to Discuss How to Support Struggling Rural Hospitals

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                    

June 5, 2014

 

Contact: Sarah Bufkin, NC NAACP - smbufkin@gmail.com or (404) 285-3413

 

 

Gov. Pat McCrory Has Yet to Respond to Request from the NC NAACP and Republican Mayor of Belhaven to Discuss How to Support Struggling Rural Hospitals

  

The North Carolina NAACP and the Forward Together Moral Movement Blocked from Delivering Letters to Legislature Monday But Will Continue to Petition 

  

 

Republican Mayor Adam O'Neal of Belhaven and Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, Talk Medicaid Expansion at Lobby Day on June 4

 

 

The letter sent by Belhaven Mayor Adam O'Neal and the North Carolina NAACP to Gov. Pat McCrory about supporting rural hospitals can be found HERE. 

 

The letter the Forward Together Moral Movement attempted to deliver to Speaker Thom Tillis, Senate Leader Phil Berger and state lawmakers on Monday can be found HERE.

 

The letter our 11 moral witnesses attempted to deliver to Gov. Pat McCrory on Monday can be found HERE.

 

 

RALEIGH - The North Carolina NAACP and the Forward Together Moral Movement have not yet had any response to a letter that Belhaven Mayor Adam O'Neal, a Republican, and Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, president of the North Carolina NAACP, wrote to Gov. Pat McCrory asking to sit down for serious discussion about how to save struggling rural hospitals in this state. 

 

The letter, included HERE, was hand delivered to the Governor's office on May 21, 2014. Another copy arrived by classified mail on May 22, 2014.

 

Mayor O'Neal and Dr. Barber spoke together yesterday at Medicaid Lobby Day about this extremist General Assembly's continued denial of the Medicaid expansion.

 

"Dr. Barber and I don't agree on everything - most things," Mayor O'Neal said. "But we agree this is a moral issue. You can't let hospitals close and people die to prove a political point. Without the Medicaid expansion, rural hospitals like the one in my hometown are on the brink of closing. People will die."

 

Earlier this week at Moral Monday on June 2, the North Carolina NAACP and the Forward Together Moral Movement attempted to deliver a letter to our lawmakers asking them to do the right thing and repeal these policies that are hurting hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians. But the doors to the People's House were locked. 

 

The People would not be kept from their petition. People from all across the state wedged their petitions into the door jams and stuffed them under the doors themselves. 

 

At the state capitol, 11 moral witnesses remained in the building with their letters to Gov. McCrory, determined to make their voices heard on these matters of life and death importance. Shortly after 7 pm on Monday evening, the state capitol police arrested them and escorted them out of the building in handcuffs.

 

We have not had any response to our letters to either the state lawmakers or Gov. McCrory. 

 

For the full coverage of the People's attempts to deliver their letters to lawmakers at Moral Monday on June 2, please see the Story of America's coverage below:

 

 

NC lawmakers lock protesters out, protesters make a statement at the door | Story of America

 

 

 

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